Kai'sa took a break from being one of the best ad carry competitive play in 2020. New characters like Senna and Aphelios brought new mechanics that players could use to achieve victory. While older picks like Ezreal, Miss Fortune, and Varus made their return to the spotlight. However, with a new year comes a brand new meta one which Kai'sa once again sits atop of. Let's take a look at what you need to get started playing the Daughter of the void.
Why did Kai'sa return to the meta?
A major contributing factor to the champion's return to the meta was the items introduced during the pre-season. Her kit synergizes well with the current bot lane items. Her ability to kite away and kill tanks also makes her an important factor against the current crop of engage supports and bruiser junglers.
Kai'sa Abilities
Passive: Second Skin
Kai'Sa's basic attacks stack Plasma up to 4 times, dealing increasing bonus magic damage on hit. After the 4th hit, she deals a percent of their missing health as bonus magic damage. Allies' immobilizing effects help stack Plasma. Additionally, Kai'Sa's item purchases upgrade her basic spells to have more powerful properties.
Q: Icathian Rain
Kai'Sa launches 6 missiles that split among nearby enemies, each dealing physical damage. Minions below 35% health take 200% damage. This ability upgrades once Kai'sa obtains 100 bonus attack damage.
W: Void Seeker
Kai'Sa fires a Void blast that grants True Sight on the first enemy hit, and triggers 2 stacks of Plasma, dealing magic damage based on the target's stacks. This ability upgrades once Kai'sa obtains 100 bonus ability power.
E: Supercharge
Kai'Sa briefly increases her movement speed, then increases her attack speed. If evolved, Supercharge grants her brief invisibility during the charge uptime. This ability upgrades once Kai'sa obtains 100% bonus attack speed.
R: Killer Instinct
Kai'Sa dashes to a location near an enemy champion affected by Plasma, gaining a shield.
The skill order is at level one take Q, level two take W, level three take E and level six take E, then max Q followed by E then finally W putting a point in R whenever possible.
Kai'sa Build
The standard pro player Kai'sa build starts with the mythic item Galeforce. This item provides critic strike chance, attack damage and attack speed which are all good stats for Kai'sa. However, its active dash is the cherry on top. With it, Kai'sa can use it to secure critical kills or evade skill shot damage and crowd control. From there they pick up the collector to help with securing kills. From there on out it's up to the player, perhaps a Runaan's Hurricane for wave clear, a Mercurial scimitar for its ability to cleanse crowd control, an Infinity Edge for more powerful crits, Rapid firecannon for extra range even a Bloodthirster for extra life steal. The possibilities are endless.
Kai'sa Runes
Pro Kai'sa players tend to favor these two rune pages above. The first is a better scaling page with Presence of mind and Legend: bloodline while the second is better for those attempting to get a lead in the early game with Magical Footwear and Biscuit Delivery. Both rune pages run Hail of blades to stack multiple plasma stacks as quickly as possible though. Taste of blood and Ravenous hunter allow her to heal of her damage and eyeball collection provides some bonus stats to allow her to evolve her abilities quicker.
Final Thoughts
Kai'sa is always a force to be feared when she is meta. Her kit allows her to do so much and do it well. If you are looking for an ad carry to pick up to gain LP maybe Kai'sa is for you. Beware she does have quite a learning curve so put in some normal games before jumping into ranked with her.